Seismic Twitch

Lion and tiger (salamander) and bears! Oh, my! We were at the zoo today. Bran and I got a membership to the zoo society so we can go anytime until November 1 next year for free! Yay! Boy has to pay but he’s only $9 and probably won’t go out with us much once winter hits. I have plans to go and take photos as much as I can. You can see today’s photos in the Zoo set (watch the slide show). There’s one photo in the “friends and family” set of bran. You can find him in the photostream. Hint: he has antlers.

It was a fun trip to the zoo. Fun until my IBS started acting up again. My guts are beginning to tug on my belly skin and causing things to get sore. That sucks. Tomorrow when we go I’m going to make sure I take ibuprofen before we leave the house so that I can make it through a nice long walk. I did manage about 2 hours today though.

I think it was WC Fields who said that one shouldn’t work with animals or children. Today that was true in some cases. I couldn’t get a good photo of the grizzly bears because they were busy, literally. They walked about, they wrestled, they turned away. Lots of moving, lots of butts. Nothing that I could edit up and create anything decent from. Sucks. The same is true for the lion, though he sat still…with his butt to me all the time. I have one side shot of his face when he turned toward where I was after I made a noise to attract his attention. However I don’t have the art of motion photography down (fluke only, I’m afraid) and the photo was a blur. I got a reasonably good photo of his butt. Clap hands, squeal with glee. I’m proud of a few shots I got, like the one of the lynx that I posted on my Seismic Clicks site at Tumblr. I like the llamas. I wish I’d been able to get an elk stag (Bran had to do).

As we were leaving Bran and Boy were attracted to the cougar enclosure. Some staff gave them melons to play/eat. I don’t know if Bran got any photos of that, but I wish I’d seen it. Boy did call out, “Mom!” but every mom’s head swiveled to him but mine. I didn’t hear him. We’re all going out tomorrow afternoon again. Yay!

I did dishes yesterday. Well, Boy and I did. I got him to dry the plastics and then to wash the final load of cookie sheets and the large electric frying pan. I did the rest. It was nice to cook breakfast today (bacon, eggs, sweet potato and tomato) and not have a gabillion dishes in the way or have to move things around just to be able to set up the fry pan. Tonight I overcooked a pork roast. I put butter on the bottom of the roaster, dumped a bunch of sliced mushroom in, seasoned up the roast, dumped it on the mushrooms, then added the rest of the mushrooms, covered it and bunged the whole thing into the oven. Then I steamed up some brussels sprouts and Bran made a large salad. I found that I didn’t want much of what I prepared. I ate a few sprouts but they didn’t appeal, neither did the overcooked roast (drag). The mushrooms were good, as was the salad, but I didn’t want to chance ending up ill from eating too much. If I get hungry I can always have some nuts later.

I got a tablet yesterday. It’s an Acer Tablet that uses Android. It’s a learning curve using it. I’ve got a lot of apps added onto it including some that the iPad/iPod uses like Angry Birds. I also have Firefox. I have no idea how to bookmark or really navigate on it. It seems like everything I do is fluke. I’m sure I’ll figure out all out eventually. I got it so that I could have a computer thing at work without having to take the computer. Plus I really wanted one. Now I have one. It has a leather case that also doubles as a stand. I have a really cool stylus and a front cover that I have to get put on. In order to do that I have to take the battery out and leave it sit for 10-12 hours for some reason. Then I can apply the skin to the front and it’ll be protected. If I’m going to invest that much in something I want to make sure I’m not going to wreck it any time soon.

When we got home from the zoo Boy was amused by the cat. His WoW character has a bird avatar (or whatever it is) and it was flapping on screen. She was trying to get at it, pawing and trying to bite it. It was amusing.

That’s about it.

but I can’t muster the energy necessary, so I thought I’d do what others do and waste time talking to you.

The weekend was pretty uneventful. I worked Friday night (despite it being a statutory holiday) because there was no one else available to fill the hours that another person couldn’t work the full shift. That’s ok. I get paid for the holiday and I get paid for the time I work. It all works out. But because I worked those measly four hours it doesn’t feel like I had a long weekend at all.

Let’s see, I didn’t tell you about my trip to Michael’s. A co-worker (the fabulous cook) does scrapbooking as a hobby and she’s always game for a trip to the hobby store. She wasn’t sure she would be because of how tired she might be after the work of putting on the big feast the night before. However, come 12:30 we were wending our way through Good Friday traffic (surprisingly there was a lot) towards Michael’s with our 50% off coupons in our bags. I didn’t get much though. I got a small bead tray for when I get my beads in the mail and some origami paper they didn’t have before. It’s just the plain stuff. One package that has the colour only on one side and a smaller package (but equal price) of the paper that has a colour on each side of the paper. I spent my work shift folding pretty birds in between building checks and fills (this is when I fill up things like sugar packets, creamer packets, coffee filters, etc. necessary to keep the place going for the residents – oh, and toilet paper, which helps them in their going). So far I’ve made a swan, two flying song birds, and a peacock. I’m still working on the penguin and chick.

Rignt now I’m supposed to be working on month end reports. I have actually done four. With the two that my supervisor/co-worker did, it totals six completed month end reports. There are 24 left to do. We have anther 2 days to do them. If I get more done tonight that might mean that I can do my month end when I have an extra staff here to cover while I work on it. Because I feel so pressured to complete the month end I also cleaned out the chinchilla cage. They’re happier again. I think that this weekend or the weekend after I’ll bring in a large container and use it to do a thorough washing of each of the levels of the cage as well as the bottom. I have to get them more treats. They do love their treats and will take them from your fingers.

On Saunday night a couple knocked on our door (and the door of our upstairs neighbour) wanting to come in and see the suite. Despite being told by our neighbour to contact the realtor they knocked on our door as well only to be told the same thing by an annoyed Bran who had to chase the cat because she bolted out of the door. Then he checked his email and saw that we got notice that the realtor wanted to bring a prospective buyer through the house on Monday around 1:00. So we had to spend some time tidying the place. Fortunately we didn’t mess it up too badly so it didn’t take an extraordinary effort. I got the kitchen mostly done except for two countertops. I vacuumed the floor which took care of most of the toast crumbs. Bran wiped off the two coutnertops I didn’t have the back power to finish and put the finishing touches on the rest of the house.

Today Bran kindly took the pressure off of me (about having strangers in my house) and I took Boy to work (he works at 1:00) and then I went to the vampires to have my blood taken to see what my thyroid levels are. I should have done it a few weeks ago but always forgot. This gave me an excuse to extend my absence from home. Even so, when I got home the realtor and the potential purchaser were outside the house chatting when I got home. Bummer. I’d hoped to avoid the whole thing.

I guess I should get back to work and do at least one more report done tonight, mabye two. It’s thrilling work. Blah!

Today is National Day of the Honey Bee. A friend and former co-worker has been working for about 18 months to get municipal, provincial and the federal governments to recognize May 29, 2010 as Day of the Honey Bee. There a very good reason for this. About 1/3 of the food we eat (including dairy and meat products) are on our tables as a result of the work that bees do. The reason this is important to know is that the honey bees are in grave danger of disappearing. Honey bees are dying off in a manner that is extremely disturbing to apiarists and farmers alike. The fruit and vegetables you eat are available to you, in large part, because of the tiny insect. We went to the Roxy Theatre to support my co-worker, donate some food to the Saskatoon Food Bank who have partnered up with my co-worker to promote the event. Unfortunately it wasn’t well attended, but it’s been terribly rainy here and that dampens anyone’s resolve to do much of anything outside of the house. We made it a multi-event.

After the presentation by a representative of the Saskatchewan Bee Keepers Association, there were two documentaries about bees. After that we had to leave to at least one time limited errand. Today was “take in the recycling” day. All the paper recycling and the refundable bottles and cans were previously loaded into the car (by a wet me and Boy)

Before we left home we were loading up the car with the various recycling we were taking in. Dutchess, being a kitty, being an indoor kitty who likes being outdoors, and being an indoor kitty who likes being outdoors but can only be outdoors on a leash in the company of a human to protect her, decided to run out of the open doors and get out to FREEDOM. She made it to the top of the steps (we have a sheltered front entrance) and then she stood in front of our neighbour’s door. She had a look that only a kitty who wants to run free but is stymied by rain can have. Poor thing. She was totally unhappy about the whole deal. I think she’s pouting on Boy’s bed (by sleeping). That’s because I’ve asked Boy to change his bed and she’s always in the place where she will be most likely to be disturbed.

When we left the theatre it was POURING! outside. Really! By the time I got to the car, which was parked about 100 meters from the theatre – and a short wait for the light to change to green – my pants were soaked to nearly the middle of my shins and I was feeling somewhat damp under my jacket. It was really pouring down.

After a short car ride we got to the SARCAN – where refundables are taken – the rain had moved to where they were and we were poured on again. This time as I tried to get the paper out of the bins while Boy and Bran took the refundables into the building. We got a little over $40. I wish we had a place we could take all our plastics as well. Things like plastic salad dressing containers, bleach and soap jugs, etc. have no place here to return to so they end up in the trash. We’d have to pay a recycling service to take it away for us and we can’t afford that. They city should set up a full recycling service. They’d take a whole lot trash out to the dump and get money from selling the plastic and glass.

While Bran was inside SARCAN I moved the car from in front of the paper bins to a parking spot. Boy and I tried phoning Bran to let him know that we had moved. We forgot how noisy it is in there. I felt kind of silly when I decided to go in and tell Bran because I couldn’t hear him talk. The din was pretty overwhelming.

After that it was off to Tim Horton’s to get some coffee and a sandwich and return the drink trays we’ve collected over the past while. They take them back and reuse them thus saving even the energy to recreate them from recycled material.

Now we’re home. We’re supposed to be doing housework. My chosen task is taking care of the dishes, but to be a-number-one honest, I don’t want to do dishes. I want to sit on my ass, on my netbook and read comics, maybe play some Runescape.

Ah well. Time to get some dishes soaking.

Ta-Ra

When I logged in to start this entry I saw that I had 6 spam comments caught by Askimet. One caught my eye because of the site link entered: i-have-blood-in-my-stool dot com. Doesn’t that just make you want to zip your fingers to your mouse and click on it? And you know that because of that phrase in this entry, I’m going to get some very disappointed people coming to my blog to read.

Not a lot has been happening since my last post. The funeral is tomorrow (Tuesday – I’ve not gone to bed yet so I’m not done with Monday yet) afternoon. Everyone from work is going. The residents appear to be going to get a card and all sign it for her. They were unsure because of the boundary thing, but it’s just a card and I’m sure my co-worker would appreciate the sentiments. They really are a good bunch of people we have there right now (despite what they’ve been convicted of).

Bran and Boy did laundry this weekend. I folded it all. Yes, it’s all done, and it’s all folded. Most of it’s been put away save for some of Boy’s clothes. He was in bed when I got home from work.

It’s been stupid hot the past couple of days and it’s expected to get hotter. Tomorrow we’re expecting a high of 30C. That makes me want to melt into a frizzy puddle of sweat. Sorry for the image, but that’s what this kind of weather does to me.

That’s about it from here. I’m hungry. Scrambled eggs are in my future.

Ta-Ra

What have I been up to? Oddly enough, a fair bit. This is a long entry so get yourself a cup of tea. I’ll wait.

I got some seed beads to work on Bran’s handfast outfit thing I’m making for him. It’s like a priest’s stole but made of beads instead of embroidered cloth. I’m sure it’ll be quite a bit heavier too. Anyway, I picked up lovely red beads and some blue that are drop dead beautiful. It’ll all look really nice when I’m done.

Yesterday was a day of dishes and laundry. I got ALL the dishes done, the stove and counter tops all wiped off and thought about sweeping the floor. Yes, I thought about sweeping the floor. Alas, my back, after standing at the sink to do load after load of dishes, was in no fit shape to wield a broom. Some witch I am, right?

While I was doing that Bran and Boy were hip deep in laundry. Really, we hadn’t done all the laundry in a few weeks, just a couple 0h-I-Have-No-Shirts/Pants/Underwear loads that just did the necessities. It’s still not done yet, there are 3 more loads to go, but they made excellent progress in that. Not only did they do that, but I got the folding nearly done as well.

Boy also dried dishes and pumped up the bike tires. He was an enormous help to us. I just thought I’d put that out there as sometimes he feels under-/unappreciated. Without him the work would’ve taken much longer if it got completed at all.

Then today was an excellent workout. I did a full 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. I didn’t stop to drink water and when I drank I didn’t spill all over myself. I really have to get a bottle with a built in straw. It saves me the embarrassment of looking like a totally uncoordinated slob. I’m only a partially uncoordinated slob.

We also did work on our arms on the weights. I was in the Captain’s Chair and managed to get to 5 leg lifts before my shoulders gave out and I started drooping. We also did weight assisted chin ups (two different kinds) and dips. Then we worked on pecs on two machines and the other of my favourite machines but I don’t remember what it works.

Then it was home to shower (eventually I did) and get ready to go out for sushi with friends. It was wonderful connecting with them again. They’re both good people with good hearts and fabulous senses of humour.

My shower was satisfying. This past week I’ve been dealing with a bit of an emotional dip. Ok, so more than a dip. I tanked earlier in the week and I haven’t recovered from it yet. So my mood is low. So showering is something that fell somewhat by the wayside. It’s hard to be motivated to do anything and getting out of bed to get to work was a major accomplishment. Let’s just say that personal hygiene has been taking a hit.

Anyway, I did shower today. My legs are freshly shorn and moisturized. My hair is fly-away clean (as only curly hair can be) and I smell fresh. I’m hoping to hit the shower at least every second day as a part of trying to lift the mood. We’ll see how that works.

This week has been somewhat distressing as well because of a co-worker/friend’s circumstances. Anyone who has friended me on Facebook will have seen my status thingie about that. She and her hubby went to Edmonton where he could have heart surgery. He has a congenital heart defect and it needed some work. They spent twice as long in surgery as they planned (11 hours) then, because of bleeding and other complications, he had to go back into surgery the next day. He’s currently in critical condition on life support. Though he’s making small improvements there’s the spectre of him not making it. They’re a young couple with two young children. I’ve been sending Reiki left, right, and centre and hoping for the best. I hate it that there’s virtually nothing else I can do in terms of helping.

This added to the general lowness of my mood and had me in tears on Friday night. I don’t usually cry unless there’s some impetus, like a movie or someone hurting my feelings. Just sitting and being weepy isn’t something I normally do. It’s also not a good thing considering that I’m on anti-depressants. This leads me to think that perhaps my dosage needs to be elevated. However, I can’t do that without seeing a physician and my doctor scarpered (see previous post about that) so I don’t have a doctor right now.

Earlier tonight I was called in to work because the person who was to work the 8-12 shift didn’t show up. I got out of the house and was on the way when I got the call that she’d finally turned up. So instead Bran and I headed off the the drug store (pharmacy/apothecary/chemist’s) for cinnamon, antihistamine and junk for Boy and I. We also got a squirt container of liquid soap for the kitchen. The old soap squirt container we had was a long-ago Christmas present from Boy when he was in elementary school. It never did squirt right and recently wouldn’t squirt at all. Thanks to the antihistamines I’ll have less vertigo related nausea when I’m doing things like ab crunches and such. Gotta love being allergic to your pet.

Speaking of pets…Bran managed to do some grooming of her today (or was it yesterday?) and got a kitten. She’s also lost a little bit of body fat thanks to the food she’s been on the past while (older cat/indoor cat). This means that she can take care of her own “intimate” grooming. Of course she has to stop and do it while I’m walking behind her…on my way to the bathroom…first thing in the morning when my bladder is screaming to be emptied. Yeah, she’s such a cat.

When we were leaving to take me to do the work that I didn’t end up doing tonight, I was confused. Somewhere, thanks to the housework we did yesterday, I lost the entire day. I thought today was Saturday and I wasn’t going to work a 4 hour shift, but an entire 12 hour shift.

Oh, one thing about yesterday. I got a pair of ear buds to replace the ones that I lost the rubber thing to. These are Sony buds for sports. They have soft over-the-ear holders and are sound eliminators. They came with a hard case that makes it more difficult to lose bits. They should last a nice long time. They’re quite comfortable to wear and muffle outside noise nicely. Since I won’t be wearing them for outside exercise they’re be quite useful.

I also figured out a way to go on the jogging outings with my gym partner. You see, because of sciatica I can’t jog. It’s what makes standing still for long periods of time painful (remember how dishes made my back blow out? That’s why). The compression of the disc onto the sciatic nerve is the reason jogging (which would cause further compression) isn’t a good idea. However, I have roller blades. So long as I manage to move forward and not land on my butt, I can go along while he runs. He also has a pair of blades so we could zoom along together. Cool, right?

That’s about it. Now I have to label this entry. It’s going to be a long list. Try and pick out the one thing in the labels that I didn’t mention in the entry.

I’ve been catching up on blogs the past couple of days. It took me that long to get through not just all the blogs I read but entries back to just before St. Patrick’s day when I last read. Last night at 2:30 am (I guess that would be this morning) I finally finished.

While I was reading one of my regulars, April Cherrie I was struck by the differences in culture. April just had her second baby. He was born by C-section a little over a month ago. Though I doubt that every woman in Malaysia can have this but April has a woman come and tend to her needs during the 30 days that April is in “confinement”. That was a word I thought was used only by old fashioned medical personnel to describe the first month post-partum.

The confinement lady is to help with the infant and generally cook and take care of the mother. This also means cooking special foods that April’s culture says is important after giving birth as well as making sure that the mother doesn’t eat foods she isn’t supposed to.

This is an interesting cultural function allowing a new mom to get used to being a mom, recover from the arduousness that is childbirth, and generally just concentrate on bonding with her new baby. But like I said, it’s unlikely that, unless this is a standard part of healthcare and is paid for by the government, not many women would be able to afford to have another woman come in and do that work for her.

Another interesting thing is that April has her first child with a nanny. That in itself isn’t extraordinary to me, but the nanny lives in another house with April’s daughter. Here, we have the nanny come in and do the childcare in our homes.

Anyway, it’s nice to get out of my cultural box and see what others around the world are doing.

I skipped the gym on Friday. Not on purpose mind you, but apparently I wasn’t ready to get up when my first alarm went off because I turned it off and resumed sleeping. I have no memory of having done so. I hope I don’t do that tomorrow morning because I’m on days this week.

Weather-wise it’s been rather sucky. It snowed, in fact, blizzarded on Friday. Many highways were closed because there was zero visibility. There was no appreciable build up though and the temperature was steady around -2 or so. It’s just that I thought we were done with that nonsense and that spring arrived. I was wrong.

Today’s workout was awesome. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. 20!!!!!! When I started in February I could only do 6 minutes. I was impressed a couple of weeks later when I could make it up to 10 (with a couple of breaks to rest). Today I did 20 with one break to have some water.

I tried out the rowing machine. It’s something that will need to be done sparingly since it involves my body folding in 1/2. That’s not good for the sciatica. I rowed 500 metres in just over 5 minutes. That’s not too bad for a first time. I was concentrating on learning and maintaining the form rather than going fast right away. After that we did some work on the balance halfs (I don’t know what they’re called, it’s a platform on top of a soft partial rubber globe. It exercises the stablizers and helps with balance) with medicine ball tossing. I fell off my thing once and my arms are a bit noodly now.

Then we moved on to do some weights concentrating on the legs. Since my arms were tired from the medicine ball tossing we didn’t want to hurt me. The one upper body thing we did was working on my trapazius (sp?) muscles at the neck/shoulder. Those are the ones that will help me in the Captain’s Chair, holding my body up. Right now I have no problem with the leg lifts but my body weight is too much for the shoulder muscles. We also did calf lifts and leg presses.

All in all it was a good time at the gym.

After the gym we headed to Michaels and I got some beads. They’re on at 1/2 price so I got some green aventurine, hematite and onyx. Bran found a display piece for showing off necklaces. Speaking of showing off, I haven’t listed anything new in my Wicked Witch Jewelry Etsy shop. Mostly because I haven’t taken any new pictures. Also note, I cut the price of shipping. Feel free to buy something.

After Michael’s we went to Sobey’s to pick up some sushi. Sure I should’ve gone to the restaurant and gotten all-you-can eat, but live and learn. It was nice to be able to nosh on it at home. I got the brown rice sushi. It was quite a lot nicer than the regular with there being a nice added nutty flavour of the brown rice.

Now I’m tired. I should sort out some laundry so that I have clothes tomorrow but I also want a nap. Guess which one is going to win out.

Ta-Ra

• Boy has his very first job interview tomorrow for a survey call centre. Even if he doesn’t get the job the interview process will be experience. I’m hoping he gets it. It’ll be a way of getting him out of the house and doing something other than playing video games or watching tv.
• Boy unplugged my tv cable from the Max box so I couldn’t watch tv. Bran was on the telephone trying to fix it and then, voila, the tech asked about the connections and it turns out that Boy disconnected it when changing connections for his X-Box. So now I have tv again.
• I bought a 5XL t-shirt today. It’s a men’s t-shirt. Why would I want something so huge? Because I love the comfortable space that size gives me. It’s a nighty, it’s a neatly large overshirt. Boy got a new pair of pants and a couple of shirts.
• I have everything ready for me to apply for student loans. All I need is for Bran’s medical form and I can do it all electronically and then hit up Tamara’s House to fax the signature forms off. Then hopefully they’ll have things processed quickly and be ready for when August rent needs to be paid.
• It’s murder and mayhem night. Yes, I am watching tv.
• Take a look at Bran’s blog. The Saskatchewan government is trying to figure out a way of allowing marriage commissioners (aka justices of the peace) to refuse to do same sex marriages. I think it’s a travesty to allow a civil servant to pick and choose who they’re going to serve. So does Bran.
• I’m going to play with the new shredder tomorrow and get rid of more stuff in the dining room that’s taking up space. We’re slowly paring things down and getting rid of stuff we don’t want or need.
• The guacamole I made yesterday is totally awesome. The only issue with it is that one of the avocados wasn’t ripe enough so there are some chunks of it in there. It’s not a problem for me though. I like avocado a whole lot.
• I got paid today. I’m glad I checked my cheque before packing it into the envelope. It didn’t have my name on it and it wasn’t signed. Needless to say my boss was somewhat dismayed.
• My fingernails are getting long. I’m thinking of getting some nail polish to make them look all pretty. Something light and iridescent. I have a dark brown colour, but it’s dark. I prefer light stuff. Of course the only problem with nail polish is staying still enough to allow it to totally dry and set properly. I don’t remember ever not wrecking at least one finger’s polish.
• While I’m shredding papers I’ll be cleaning off my side table, both on top and under on the shelf. That should help make more room for more things (as I always need more room for books, mail to look at, books, etc.).
• I work this weekend. I’m back to my regular schedule. This past pay check was nice because I got paid for 40 hours and stat pay. It was nice. It’s not often I get that kind of pay, but that was nice.
• We got a new Britta filter for the kitchen. The old one was leaking and needed a new filter. We’ll keep that one and use it as a spare if we break the new one again. Considering our luck with those things it’s a good idea to have a spare.
• I’m going to fry up some tofu and prep food to eat on the weekend. None of the food there is not meat based and generally I don’t like much. Lunch is easy enough with soup and sandwiches. I can make a veggie sandwich. Supper is usually some baked meat thing, fries and gravy with a veg. Fries (they’re less than stellar quality) and veg does not make a meal. I figure some stir fried veg and tofu with rice (with the new lemon ginger stir fry sauce I got) for Saturday and pasta and sauce for Sunday, or with cheese. I haven’t decided yet.
• I didn’t finish the photo project that I entered. I totally forgot about it. I haven’t even finished editing the photos yet. Maybe I’ll do that over the weekend while I’m at work. I’ll post what I shot (the ones that are ok, that is) when I’m done.

That’s it.

I know, I’m bad for not being more diligent in my daily entries. But there’s not a whole lot going on right now. I did thoroughly clean the kitchen. I moved the fridge (from behind which I swept many mini-flavour packets and some little black beans that at first had me thinking we had a rodent problem), the stove (found my mini-grater that I use to grate frozen ginger and garlic-not frozen- and some lemon pepper stuff). I moved the microwave to a different counter top and cleaned off where it was (ick!). The microwave has found a new home elsewhere in the kitchen. Lastly, I swept and washed the floor. It’s now all clean and stuff.

Work is going ok. Because of people taking time off and July 1st being in mid-week, I’m getting a lot of hours. That’s a nice thing.

I finally hemmed the scrubs I bought a few weeks back. They’re now capri length and I’m quite happy about them.

Now for the pause for thought from Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack II:

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack II

Sexual Orientation

Daily effects of straight privilege

This article is based on Peggy McIntosh’s article on white privilege and was written by a number of straight-identified students at Earlham College who got together to look at some examples of straight privilege. These dynamics are but a few examples of the privilege which straight people have. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer-identified folk have a range of different experiences, but cannot count on most of these conditions in their lives.

On a daily basis as a straight person…

• I can be pretty sure that my roomate, hallmates and classmates will be comfortable with my sexual orientation.
• If I pick up a magazine, watch TV, or play music, I can be certain my sexual orientation will be represented.
• When I talk about my heterosexuality (such as in a joke or talking about my relationships), I will not be accused of pushing my sexual orientation onto others.
• I do not have to fear that if my family or friends find out about my sexual orientation there will be economic, emotional, physical or psychological consequences.
• I did not grow up with games that attack my sexual orientation (IE fag tag or smear the queer).
• I am not accused of being abused, warped or psychologically confused because of my sexual orientation.
• I can go home from most meetings, classes, and conversations without feeling excluded, fearful, attacked, isolated, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, stereotyped or feared because of my sexual orientation.
• I am never asked to speak for everyone who is heterosexual.
• I can be sure that my classes will require curricular materials that testify to the existence of people with my sexual orientation.
• People don’t ask why I made my choice of sexual orientation.
• People don’t ask why I made my choice to be public about my sexual orientation.
• I do not have to fear revealing my sexual orientation to friends or family. It’s assumed.
• My sexual orientation was never associated with a closet.
• People of my gender do not try to convince me to change my sexual orientation.
• I don’t have to defend my heterosexuality.
• I can easily find a religious community that will not exclude me for being heterosexual.
• I can count on finding a therapist or doctor willing and able to talk about my sexuality.
• I am guaranteed to find sex education literature for couples with my sexual orientation.
• Because of my sexual orientation, I do not need to worry that people will harass me.
• I have no need to qualify my straight identity.
• My masculinity/femininity is not challenged because of my sexual orientation.
• I am not identified by my sexual orientation.
• I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my sexual orientation will not work against me.
• If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has sexual orientation overtones.
• Whether I rent or I go to a theater, Blockbuster, an EFS or TOFS movie, I can be sure I will not have trouble finding my sexual orientation represented.
• I am guaranteed to find people of my sexual orientation represented in the school curriculum, faculty, and administration.
• I can walk in public with my significant other and not have people double-take or stare.
• I can choose to not think politically about my sexual orientation.
• I do not have to worry about telling my roommate about my sexuality. It is assumed I am a heterosexual.
• I can remain oblivious of the language and culture of LGBTQ folk without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
• I can go for months without being called straight.
• I’m not grouped because of my sexual orientation.
• My individual behavior does not reflect on people who identity as heterosexual.
• In everyday conversation, the language my friends and I use generally assumes my sexual orientation. For example, sex inappropriately referring to only heterosexual sex or family meaning heterosexual relationships with kids.
• People do not assume I am experienced in sex (or that I even have it!) merely because of my sexual orientation.
• I can kiss a person of the opposite gender on the heart or in the cafeteria without being watched and stared at.
• Nobody calls me straight with maliciousness.
• People can use terms that describe my sexual orientation and mean positive things (IE “straight as an arrow”, “standing up straight” or “straightened out”) instead of demeaning terms (IE “ewww, that’s gay” or being “queer”).
• I am not asked to think about why I am straight.
• I can be open about my sexual orientation without worrying about my job.

Please, give it some real thought. For those who would quote the Bible, remember that Jesus did say that we are to love one another…not just those who are heterosexual.

Today I slept in. Bran and I had good intentions at one time last night to get up early today, get laundry sorted and then get it all done early. Yeah. That didn’t work out. When we went to bed that changed to me getting up after he got home from taking Boy to school. Then it changed to an hour after that when he actually did get home. It wasn’t so much because I was extremely reluctant to get out of bed but that Bran had a headache. This is where I get those mixed feelings of relief that he had a headache and therefore we could sleep in and feeling bad because he had a headache, but darnit, we got to sleep in some more. The long and the short of it was that we didn’t get up until 1 or so.

The laundry is sorted and Bran is currently working on it.

Here’s where the drooling began with shopping for two of my most favouriteist stuff…
We picked Boy up from school and headed off to Staples/London Drugs (in the same strip mall). I needed coloured pens and highlighters for marking up my research books. I love pens and Staples has many varieties. I settled on “Maximum Performance” pens. They have a 1.4 mm tip. They’ll be ideal for underlining text and come in pink, orange, yellow, blue, and purple. The highlighters are pretty standard and come in those colours and also green. Sharpie has cool highlighters that I could’ve gotten, but they’re bitching expensive. Bran got a little media wallet for his camera SDHC cards. It’ll be a little more difficult to lose that than a single one of those little cards.

Then we were off to the Bentley store to look for a new purse for Bran. We found the perfect one for him. In fact, it was so perfect that I wanted it too. Alas he wasn’t giving his up. The sales attendant appeared both amused and amazed at the two of us. She also managed to find an identical bag for me. It doesn’t hold any more than my current “AS SEEN ON TV’ bag, but it closes securely and the lining doesn’t pull out every time I pull my wallet out. I do have to put another grommet in to attach my keys. The nicest thing, I mean other than the bags being better quality in general, is that they close securely with zippers so there’s a lot less chance of losing something out of the bag if it tips over when it’s closed up.

I pens and containers (bags, purses, backpacks, wallets, plastic containers of all sorts, trunks…if it contains something chances are I’ll love to look at it)…speaking of which, there was a lovely wooden file cabinet at Staples that would make an awesome chest of drawers. Nice deep drawers, all wood, lovely finish and only $200 for a four drawer unit. I just made puppy dog eyes at Bran about it. I have to stop that.

That’s what I have right now. However, I did manage to finish Keeper’n Me, the book by Richard Wagamese. Really, read it. I highly recommend it. I started Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley. Its about Noah, the flood but, from what I’ve gotten so far, from a very different perspective. Noah is an alchemist and an asshole, at least he is thus far and by today’s standards. Mrs. Noyes (that’s Noah’s surname) doesn’t much like him. Ham is a scientist and sensitive, Shem is a half-wit brute whose only thought is to money, Japeth is blue (really, the colour blue) and spends much of his time in a tub of water with lye in it in an attempt to wash off the blue. I’ve only gotten to page 23. I’ll let you know how the rest goes.

My feet are sore. I’ve been up to the third floor 6 times today. At least no one on the third floor locked themselves out of their room today. That would’ve meant even more trots up the stairs. Actually, it’s not the up part so much as how my right knee doesn’t like the down part.

I managed to not have much leftover food after supper tonight. Usually when I make battered fish there’s 1/2 dozen or more pieces left. Tonight there was only 2. There were going to be a few leftover green beans but I ate them. There was a fair bit of potato, but I didn’t have any choice as to the amount of that I cooked.

Other than the odd bit of work I mostly played Bejeweled all afternoon. Yeah, everyone should have my job.

Tomorrow is laundry day. I’m going to stay home from school so that I can fold clothes. That way it’s all done and whatnot. I’ll probably be spending most of the day in the bedroom reading, napping, watching videos, and folding clothes. Sound exciting?